"Back in olden times, the movies usually waited until political leaders were safely buried before putting them on screen. We're less deferential now. From Oliver Stone's W., which hit theaters when George W. Bush was still in office, to Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice, which came out when Donald Trump was seeking his second term, filmmakers now calmly fictionalize stories about those still in power."
"The wizard of the title isn't actually Putin, but his media advisor Vadim Baranov, played by Paul Dano with plump cheeks that look as hermetically polished as Teflon. During an interview with a Yale professor played by Jeffrey Wright, the now-retired Baranov looks back on his career. It begins during the fall of communism in the Gorbachev era and continues into the lawless '90s, when Mafia-style capitalism impoverished millions but turned some schemers into billionaire oligarchs."
"In that time, Baranov goes from selling electronics to becoming an avant-garde theater director who falls in love with a cynical actress (Alicia Vikander). When she dumps him for an oil oligarch, Baranov realizes that the arts don't matter in the new, "anything goes" Russia. He decides that he wants to be at the heart of his times. So he goes into TV, creating trashy reality shows, and becoming a protege of Boris Berezovsky, a real-life oligarch who owns the country's biggest channel."
The Wizard of the Kremlin centers on Vadim Baranov, a media advisor portrayed by Paul Dano, rather than Vladimir Putin. The story follows Baranov’s career from the Gorbachev-era fall of communism through the chaotic 1990s. Mafia-style capitalism impoverishes many while enabling some schemers to become billionaire oligarchs. Baranov moves from selling electronics to directing avant-garde theater and falling for a cynical actress. After she leaves him for an oil oligarch, he concludes that the arts no longer matter in a permissive Russia. He then enters television, creates trashy reality shows, and becomes a protégé of Boris Berezovsky, who seeks a corrupt successor for his major channel.
Read at www.npr.org
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